The Arlington Line was a series of fortifications erected in present-day Arlington County, Virginia, to protect the City of Washington during the American Civil War.
Just across the Potomac River from the Union capital, Confederate Virginia was a major Union concern when the war began. In May 1861, federal troops seized much of present-day Arlington County (which borders the Potomac), and immediately began constructing an extensive network of fortifications to protect Washington. That network eventually became known as the Arlington Line. The pace of construction accelerated after the Confederacy defeated the Union at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861.
The Arlington Line was quite strategically effective. It was never attacked, even after the Union's disastrous defeat at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862.
Major D.P. Woodbury was the Union engineer who designed and constructed the Arlington Line, and one of its forts, Fort Woodbury (which once stood in what is today Arlington's Courthouse neighborhood), was named for him.
Historical markers showing the locations of each of the former Arlington Line fortifications and providing brief descriptions of each can be found throughout Arlington County. For more information, see the External Links.
Read more about Arlington Line: References/External Links
Famous quotes containing the words arlington and/or line:
““There are no millers any more,”
Was all that she had heard him say:
And he had lingered at the door
So long that it seemed yesterday.”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
“Any walk through a park that runs between a double line of mangy trees and passes brazenly by the ladies’ toilet is invariably known as “Lover’s Lane.””
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)